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In this article, the authors discusses the Sample Registration System (SRS)-based life table data on the increasing trends of child mortality in India. It mentions that the negative connection of child immunization, better socio-economic status and nutritional status suggests that there is no reason to believe on the estimation of SRS on the increasing rate of child mortality. It suggests that the SRS must consider biases on the unknown origin of present data to avoid erroneous interpretations.

Temporary internal migration is an important livelihood strategy but there have been inconsistencies in its conceptualisation and measurement which limit understanding of the phenomenon across diverse geographical contexts. This paper explores the ontological category of temporary internal migration and how it is defined and measured in eight Asian countries. We identify three broad approaches to measurement: Place of enumeration; Multilocality and Administrative measures. Using these data, we undertake comparisons of migration intensity, age profiles, and rural- to-urban flows across countries in our sample. Our findings indicate that temporary migration ranges between 0.3 to 2.9 per cent of the population—likely an underestimate of internal temporary mobility. Applying an average intensity of 1.5 per cent to all Asian countries yields an estimate of 71 million temporary internal migrants in any given year. Analysis of age profiles reveals that temporary internal migration peaks not only at young adult ages, but also at older ages in selected countries, pointing to the importance of consumption-related movements in some settings. The geographical patterns are also diverse with rural-to-urban flows matched by significant rural-to-rural and urban-to-rural flows. The paper concludes with recommendations for advancing both the conceptualisation and measurement of temporary internal migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Gavin W. Jones dedicated an impressive 58-year career to extensive research on various aspects of population and development in Asia. As a seasoned consultant, he was pivotal in shaping population policies and programs in more than 10 Asian countries, impacting the region’s demographic landscape. Throughout his illustrious career, Gavin has left an indelible mark through his prolific publications, with 30 books, over 180 journal articles, and book chapters. His body of work covered various demographic subjects in the Asia-Pacific region, significantly contributing to our understanding of population dynamics in Southeast, South, and East Asia. His research has been instrumental in informing policy decisions in these regions by providing evidence-based recommendations. In addition to his consultancy and academic achievements, Gavin actively engaged in professional networks, fostering collaborations and facilitating knowledge exchange among fellow demographers and researchers. His commitment to mentorship has been invaluable, nurturing emerging demographers and supporting the next generation of population scholars in population and development. The present paper aims to delve into Professor Gavin W. Jones’s specific contributions to elucidate the intricate relationship between population and development, an area that inevitably intersects with other papers in this festschrift on marriage, fertility, and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many countries now prioritise accepting skilled migrants to meet labour demand in a globalised economy, retaining them has been a challenge. Low retention is often attributed to immigration policy failures and/or skill mismatches in the labour market. This paper argues that besides career issues, skilled migrants' cultural aspirations and their sense of 'civic belonging' are significant factors when evaluating migration outcomes and the prospect of staying. This paper is based on 44 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese college-educated migrants working in Hong Kong and Tokyo, two major Asian global cities known for attracting foreign talent. The paper found that ambivalence towards staying prevails, due to unfulfilled aspirations for cosmopolitanism—in the case of Tokyo—and frustrations with a limited 'social contract'—in the case of Hong Kong. The implications of these findings could extend the scope of factors to be considered in investigating what shapes migrants' settlement decisions in demographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's rapid industrialization and urbanization have been accompanied by massive internal population migration over the past decades. These immigrants experience various housing disadvantages along their migration journeys. Using longitudinal survey datasets from China Family Panel Studies, this paper identifies the housing pathways adopted by the Chinese urban migrants, including moving into homeownership, moving out of homeownership, and non-homeownership mobility. Job changes and institutional forces are the most significant mobility triggers, while family life cycle events are vital predictors of moving into homeownership. The dilemma of job-induced migration versus family-centred homeownership attainment has resulted in various social issues. This paper suggests that policies should be systematically designed for industry convergence from an overall urban planning perspective to promote township urbanization, including industrial relocation, rural economic revitalization, and institutional reforms of rural-urban disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Binod Khadria on the matrix of the Indian migrant community abroad, and another by Xiang Biao on skilled migration.

Postponement of first births is a key cause of declining fertility rates, especially in East Asia where recovery from delayed childbearing has been weak. This paper investigates achievement of ideal ages at marriage and first birth in Singapore using survey data on 657 married women aged 25–34. Almost 50 per cent marry within one year of their ideal age, but less than 30 per cent have their first child within six months of their ideal interval to first birth, with around 50 per cent waiting longer than ideal. The high proportion of women experiencing a longer-than-ideal first birth interval was observed across all age and educational groups. Regression results show that co-residence with a foreign domestic worker and paid leave entitlements are associated with higher probability of achieving their ideal first birth interval, whereas availability of parents/in-laws, husband's help and unpaid leave do not reduce time to childbearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty exists not only in low and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. Brunei, a rich country heavily reliant on hydrocarbon in Southeast Asia, is not an exception. Though poverty is not a topic that is politically taboo in Brunei, there are no statistics on poverty in Brunei. Yet, having such statistics would aid the government to achieve the target of zero poverty in 2035. Therefore, this technical paper provides a pioneering estimation of poverty rates in Brunei, utilising published data from 'Household Expenditure Surveys' and focusing on the basic need approach. It calculates monthly household poverty rates based on the World Bank's poverty lines and OECD median income approach. It produces poverty rates based on expenditure and income. The research employs two models: a proportional model and a refined model. The results show declining rates of poverty, regardless of the poverty lines and models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the question as to whether Pakistan's fertility transition is stalling. The paper reviews the trajectories of fertility and its various determinants and compares Pakistan's trends with those of India and Bangladesh. Countries in the South Asia region share features such as cultural similarities (e.g. the low status of women and son preference) and high poverty levels. However, while Bangladesh and India are near replacement fertility today with modern contraceptive prevalence rates well above 50 per cent, Pakistan still has one of the highest fertility and lowest contraceptive prevalence levels in Asia. Our main conclusion is that Pakistan's fertility transition is close to stalling in mid-transition. The key causes of this stall are a high and unchanging desired family size, stalling demand for contraception and relatively low satisfaction of this demand. These are important obstacles to future decline in fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as an introduction to the three substantive papers in this themed section on the impact of migration on the well-being of the ‘left behind’ in Asia. In the light of recent migration trends such as the ‘feminization’ of migration and ‘brain-drain’ of health workers in the region, the paper provides a brief review of the existing scholarly literature on the vulnerability of different groups of the 'left behind’, particularly women, children and the elderly. It argues that a multi-dimensional approach is needed, taking into consideration not only the economic impact of remittances but also factors such as social networks and gender effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marital exchange between origin 'houses' is central to Timorese narratives and has been a central concern of anthropological study of Portuguese Timor and independent Timor-Leste. This article challenges the notion of stable patterns of marital exchange between named houses across time. Drawing on data from the colonial census, this paper finds a severe imbalance in the sex ratio during the first half of the twentieth century. Starting from subsistence agriculture, demographic shocks, the head tax and the introduction of forced coffee cultivation, the paper identifies the neglect and mistreatment of females, inflationary pressures on the bride price, increasing polygamous marriage and significant maternal mortality as key causal mechanisms that led to a highly imbalanced sex ratio. These dynamics impacted the age of marriage for men and women, and resulted in a sharp increase in the number of men who were unable to marry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How migrants' behaviour shapes their intention to settle in their destination (settlement intention) has rarely been examined. This paper pays special attention to the role of the reference-group effect, captured by subjective economic status, in shaping migrants' intention to settle in urban China. We found that both sending communities and receiving communities contribute to the reference-group effect on settlement intention. Compared with their relatives, friends, and colleagues in their hometowns and destinations, migrants with a higher subjective economic status have a stronger intention to settle. A 1-unit increase in the relative position of a migrant's subjective economic status in the sending or receiving community contributes to a 19.6 per cent or 19.4 per cent increase in the possibility of a migrant's intention to settle. Additionally, cultural assimilation, social participation, and identification mediate the relationship between subjective economic status in the reference group and settlement intention. We also found that objective economic status in the destination increases subjective economic status in the reference group in the hometown and destination. Both objective and subjective economic status affect migrants' settlement intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers son preference effects оn actual fertility behaviour in Kyrgyzstan, a post-Soviet country of Central Asia. Using data from the DHS2012 and DHS1997, I argue that risks of transitions to parities from the second to the fifth are significantly higher among women with no sons. Furthermore, the relation of risks of parity progressions to sex composition of children already born is not generally stronger in families with strict gender asymmetries. Attempting to explain this, I show that in such families, contraceptive use is less frequent – and that could complicate the implementation of son preference in such families and weaken their expected contrast with other families in the role of son preference for fertility outcomes. The possibility also is discussed that son preference may be supported by factors not related to family-internal norms, such as the need for all families to have a male heir for securing family wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact the number of child(ren) and the age of child(ren) on the participation in the labour force by married women in China. Using logistic regression models with the latest Chinese Family Panel Studies data, results show that: (1) the odds of LFP (Labour Force Participation) has decreased by 20.7 per cent for married women with one child and 37.7 per cent for women with two or more children compared with those without any child; (2) the impact of childbearing on LFP is stronger for women who are highly educated or aged 30–39; (3) the age of child(ren) is positively correlated with the mother’s labour participation, with a bigger effect for women coming from rural areas (i.e. those with an agricultural hukou), for women aged below 30, and for highly educated women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights Professor Gavin Jones’ seminal work on Asian divorce patterns, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia’s Muslim communities. Beginning in the 1980s, Jones addressed the challenges of fragmented and often unreliable demographic data on divorce. With careful compilation and analysis of aggregate data, paired with firsthand surveys and ethnographic studies, he set a foundation for examining shifting divorce trends in Southeast Asia. His findings challenged prevailing ethnocentric perspectives and questioned the notion that modernisation invariably leads to rising divorce rates. Jones stressed the importance of understanding divorce within the broader social, cultural, and historical contexts of the respective societies. Beyond his individual research, he was instrumental in cultivating a community of scholars studying marriage and divorce in Asia and fostering collaborations. Jones’ insights into Asia’s demographic shifts have been invaluable, and his legacy will continue to influence demographers for generations to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines trends of internal migration in China across two decades, with a focus on changes in socio-demographic predictors of origin-destination patterns. We use four microdata samples of the China decennial census and minicensus. After introducing a description of overall internal migration trends and providing a discussion of the utility of the urban hierarchy framework, we proceed with a two-step statistical approach. We look first descriptively at interprovincial bilateral migration flows. We then turn to a multivariate analysis of outmigration and destination selection as a function of age, sex, educational attainment and hukou status. Our results reveal the differential attractiveness of origins (for retention) and destinations by demographic characteristics and position within the urban hierarchy, and also indicate shifts in the strength of predictors over time. Greater educational attainment and urban hukou strongly favour the selection of a destination within the top levels of the urban hierarchy. Over time, selectivity by gender weakens. Although urban hukou and schooling become slightly less powerful predictors of interprovincial migration, attractiveness of top-tier destinations increases once individual demographic characteristics are controlled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we pay tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Gavin W. Jones and his outstanding contributions to the scholarship on marriage. Following a chronological assessment of his large body of work on marriage, we reflect on Gavin’s general approach to research changing marriage patterns within and across diverse regions of Asia. His approach to studying marriage went beyond the conventional demographic focus on examining shifts in age at first marriage. He showed how examining shifting patterns across different, yet interrelated aspects of marriage offered an important window to understand the broader complexities of economic and socio-political change in the region; showing why there is much more to demography beyond counting births, deaths, and migration. As two generations of demographers, we reflected how his work and approach to research continue to influence our research and engagement with the region. Gavin’s legacy extends beyond demography and Indonesian/Malay studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the launch of family planning programs in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been a divergence in fertility transition across Muslim countries. Bangladesh and Pakistan provide an interesting contrast in the pace of fertility transition. Typical of the Muslim world, both countries had a high fertility level of around 6.6 children per woman in the middle of the twentieth century. While the fertility level in Bangladesh had declined to replacement level by 2016, Pakistan's fertility rate remained well above that level, at 3.5 children per woman. Drawing on data from multiple waves of the Demographic and Health Surveys to run bivariate analyses and negative binomial regression, the paper examines the determinants of fertility differentials within and across the two countries. Pakistani women had more children than Bangladeshi women across all socio-economic variables. Differences in socio-economic conditions, cultural practices such as childbearing norms, and access to family planning between the two countries are plausible reasons for the fertility variations. The paper concludes with implications of fertility differentials in developing countries, and some recommendations on strategies to enhance planned parenthood in high fertility countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing policy focus on India’s demographic potential and associated growth benefits. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the net growth benefits derived from an increased share of working-age population in India. The analysis adopts decomposition and econometric methods, using data at the state and national level in India, to robustly test the nature and magnitude of the demographic dividend in India. We find that the Indian economy is drawing significant benefits from the ongoing process of demographic transition, with dividend effects estimated to be over one percentage point per annum during 1980-2010. However, to derive high growth from the demographic potential would require tackling some of the growth constraints. The paper discusses ways in which these constraints can be addressed to fully tap the potential of demographic dividend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on gender relations has overlooked the similarities and differences among East Asian societies. To fill this gap, this study investigated the association among men's gender-role attitudes, the actual share of housework, and perceptions of fairness in housework division, and how it differs across four East Asian societies. Using data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme, the results demonstrated that Japanese and Taiwanese men had more egalitarian attitudes than mainland Chinese and South Koreans, while mainland Chinese men did more housework. Korean men held the most traditional gender-role attitudes and were least likely to feel they did less than their fair share. The paper concludes with implications for the gender revolution, suggesting policies should promote men's involvement in the family besides helping mothers balance work and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines migration from less developed areas to more developed areas. Based on recent data collected in Hong Kong in 2020, we explore the intention of Hong Kong Chinese residents aged between 18 and 50 to move to mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). Despite rapid economic growth in the area, many local Hong Kong Chinese residents still consider mainland cities in GBA as less developed. In this study, we provide an alternative framework for exploring the ways that economic and non-economic factors can influence the intention to migrate from less developed areas to more developed areas. The results of our analyses demonstrate that non-economic adjustment cost, such as the level of familiarity with the destination, social networks, and ability to speak Putonghua, plays an important role in shaping the intention of working-age adults in Hong Kong to move to mainland cities in GBA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the country with the largest population of older people, while still being a developing one, China is confronted with huge challenges in seeking an optimum response, which is high on the agenda of policy makers in Beijing. This paper makes the case for a radical new strategy on ageing which substitutes an ageing-oriented paradigm for the previous passive, instrumental and economistic ones. We first present an overview of the trend of Chinese population ageing, compared with already aged societies, followed by a summary of its impacts on the social welfare system associated with old age. Then we outline an alternative WHO influenced policy paradigm, active ageing, focusing on health, participation and security. In the light of this new approach, more active policies on ageing are called for, which are rooted in a comprehensive understanding of population trends, draw on international experience and conform to Chinese conditions and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea is the first country to shift from strong son preference to preferring daughters. This paper examines the factors associated with daughter preference, using data from the 2012 Korea General Social Survey, a nationally-representative survey of 1,379 people. The outcome variable was derived from the survey question, 'If you were to have one child, which one would you like to have - son, daughter, or no preference?' Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the association between reported child gender preference and several social and cultural variables. 43 per cent of respondents preferred daughters, 36 per cent preferred sons, and 21 per cent were indifferent. The probability of preferring daughters over sons increased with exposure to Korea's social transformations (younger, more educated, and urban residents); and among those less vested in the traditional patriarchal norms (women, non-Buddhists, and less conservative views on gender roles). Other studies in South Korea find increasing intergenerational support between parents and daughters. This is no longer an agrarian society where aging parents depend financially on sons. Today people can save for retirement and have national health insurance. However, people live longer and need companionship and care which they feel daughters provide more than sons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the 1970s the Asia-born population of Australia remained small due to the racist White Australia Policy which denied entry to non-Europeans. Following its abolition in the early 1970s, Asian immigration progressively intensified, and in 2016 the Asia-born population of the country reached a total of 2.7 million, though the older population aged 65+ remained relatively small. This paper presents new projections of Australia's older Asia-born populations from 2016 to 2056 created with a new birthplace projection model. The results show substantial growth of the older Asia-born population can be expected over coming decades, along with changing composition by country of birth. The Asia-born proportion of Australia's older population overall is projected to rise from just 6 per cent in 2016 to 19 per cent in 2056. These coming demographic changes present challenges and opportunities - in particular relating to the provision of culturally appropriate residential and community aged care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal migration, the movement of people between localities and regions within a country, has resulted in a significant redistribution of national populations. Past cross-national studies have been impeded by a lack of data and comparable metrics upon which to base comparisons. This paper examines internal migration in 30 Asian countries utilising a global dataset and a novel suite of measures devised in the IMAGE project. Three aspects of internal migration are explored: overall intensity, age patterns, and spatial impacts. Comparisons reveal that internal migration intensities, while on average lower than in other regions, are highly variable across countries. Migration peaks at earlier ages and is concentrated into a narrower age band than in other parts of the world. Analysis of spatial impacts highlights the contribution of migration to urbanisation, but a comparison of current trends against lifetime migration data also reveals the impact of historical events and government policies on national migration systems. Wide variation in key dimensions of migration among Asian countries reflects a diversity in national circumstances. The way forward lies in further in-depth country studies building on the common analytic framework articulated in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the countries of East and Southeast Asia where fertility has reached ultra-low levels, there has been a flurry of developments in pro-natalist policy over the past five years or so, but its impact appears to be limited. This paper addresses the strong obstacles hindering the success of pro-natalist policies in the region, suggests key interventions that are needed, and stresses that the policies in these countries should also be considering other ways of addressing the issues. Social policy has certainly moved ahead in positive ways in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, as evidenced by parental leave policy and childcare reform, but workplace cultures have yet to follow suit. The slow changes in gender norms, along with the pressures of educating children and finding housing in the big cities where most people in the region live, are the continuing realities facing couples considering marriage and childbearing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines composition of households formed after the outmigration of a household member in rural Cambodian and correlates household types with indicators of economic condition. The paper focuses on households containing left-behind parents and the children of migrants. Excess mortality in the 1970s due to war suggests the association between migration and economic condition may be gendered. This could be exacerbated when migration leads to a skip-generation household containing a left-behind parent and a child of migrant without an own parent of the child present. Data come from the Cambodian Rural-Urban Migration Project (CRUMP), a project designed to study migration in rural Cambodia. Most households formed after a migration contain a left-behind parent of migrant. While about 22 per cent of these households contain a left-behind child of migrant, the per cent is over 60 per cent when the migrant is themselves a parent. The economic situation tends to be worst for left behind solo mothers (mothers of migrants who do not live with a spouse) and best for left-behind coupled parents of migrants. There is evidence that the combination of left-behind solo mothers living with children of migrants in a skip-generation situation is the most disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Asia, men and women increasingly delay or abstain from marriage, a change often linked to improvements in female educational attainment and labour force participation. In Myanmar, less than 90 per cent of women aged 45–49 years during the 2014 census had ever married, compared to nearly all men of a similar age. This paper investigates the difference in marriage patterns between males and females in Myanmar. Using a Cox proportional hazards model, we analyse the associations between entry into marriage across age cohorts, and male and female educational attainment and workforce participation. We find that having a high level of education and currently working negatively affect women's chances of marrying across all ages. While higher education similarly affects younger men, we find that higher socioeconomic status substantially improves a man's likelihood of marriage in later life, suggesting lingering gender stereotypes influencing women to remain single in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnicity used to be a political taboo in Indonesia, a country with more than 600 ethnic groups, but this has changed since the advent of the Reform era (1998). The government of Indonesia (through Statistics-Indonesia) included a question on ethnicity in its 2000 population census, and continued in the 2010 census. This paper produces the first estimates of ethnic diversity at the national, provincial, and district levels using tabulations provided by Statistics-Indonesia based on the full enumeration data set of the 2010 Indonesia Population Census. It analyzes three measurements of ethnic diversity: the percentage of the largest ethnic group, Ethnic Fractionalization Index (EFI), and Ethnic Polarization Index (EPOI). This paper provides a quantitative start for further studies to link ethnic diversity with many social, economic, and political variables, including studies on the dynamics of ethnic diversity. We conclude that Indonesia is relatively ethnically fractionalized, though not as polarized. Among provinces and districts, we have seen a continuum ranging from ethnically homogeneous to heterogeneous, from the least fractionalized to the most fractionalized, and from the least polarized to the most polarized province or district. Variation in ethnic diversity is also seen across islands although provinces and districts in the Island of Java are more likely to be homogeneous, less fractionalized and less polarized than provinces and districts outside Java Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various papers published within the periodical, including one by Bumpass on low fertility in Japan, one by Jones and Gubhaju on mean age of first marriage and one by Choe and Retherford on the fertility decline in South Korea.

Women's limited intra-household decision-making power has several dimensions: geographic, cultural, economic, and demographic. The dimension we focus on in this paper relates to women's transition into marriage. Marriages in India are near universal and age at marriage is low implying that nearly all women spend a large part of their lives in a marriage. However, little is known about the bearing events transpiring at the beginning of a woman's marriage have on the path of her decision-making power in the household over her life course. Drawing on the life course theoretical framework, we argue that household authority follows a trajectory, which begins at least with her transition to marriage. Our analysis using panel data of 20,927 mothers from IHDS indicate three marriage types- self-choice marriages (5 per cent), parent-arranged with no choice on the part of young women (39 per cent) and parent-arranged - with some choice (56 per cent). Women who started married life in self-choice marriages later end up with the most decision-making power. But a complex pattern of power relationships emerges among wives, husbands, and in-laws. 'Some-choice' marriages empower husbands and not the parents-in-law while 'no-choice' marriages typically benefit the parents-in-law and not the husbands or the wives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 and migration, marriages & births Pandemics exert a significant impact on the migratory decisions and movements of people; the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be no exception. Estimating excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic analysis of COVID-19-related mortality, 2020-21. Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have a profound influence on human society for many years to come. [Extracted from the article]

The global rise of mega-urban regions (MUR) signifies the impending dominance of this new urban form. Focusing on Manila's MUR, this paper contributes by mapping the demographic landscape of the MUR to account for its spatial form, patterns and trajectories. Using a hotspot analysis of disaggregated barangay-level data, significant ‘local’ clusters of population growth and decline are calculated over two decades. When mapped, three local patterns are observed: (1) outward expansion of high- and low-growth clusters; (2) development of new growth nodes on the fringes; and (3) recent emergence of high-growth clusters in the core. The patterns illustrate the volatile and chameleon-like configurations of the MUR. The paper also demonstrates how calculated clusters may be used as contextual compasses to expose critical mega-urban processes. With local-level data on settlement histories, development projects and socio-political events, the paper historicises landuse change, demolitions and relocations to unveil site-specific dispossessions in the MUR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how delaying school start time to 9 o'clock affected the time use and health of secondary-school students in South Korea. To identify the causal effects of delaying school start time, we used a difference-in-differences methodology with two nationally representative datasets to take advantage of a unique natural experiment in South Korea. We found that the policy led students to sleep 16.1 min more on weekdays and 7.6 min less a day over the weekend, increasing sleep satisfaction among the affected students. Furthermore, the policy contributed to increased growth and improved mental health. However, the effects of the policy were not uniform across subgroups. In terms of time use, students from the highest socioeconomic group increased their sleep duration most. In contrast, students from the middle and lowest socioeconomic categories increased their use of electronic devices and decreased their study time compared to students from the highest socioeconomic group. We provide evidence that these behavioural differences by socioeconomic group could be related to the degree of parental monitoring and available economic resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing countries, women are 3.5 times more likely than men to participate in unpaid work. As a traditionally patriarchal society, strict gender roles existed in Iran but there is no empirical evidence to show whether profound socio-economic and demographic changes in the society have altered these deep-rooted stratified gender roles. This paper uses data from the 2014–2015 Time Use Survey, conducted in the urban areas of Iran, to describe the spouses' division of household labour and determine the correlates of this division. The correlates are selected based on the relative resources and time availability approaches. The results suggest that wives are five times more likely than husbands to participate in the household labour, which is wider than the average gender gap observed in developing countries. The findings provide partial support for the relative resources and time availability approaches, with wives' experience being more consistent with these approaches. The existing profound gender gap in the division of household labour and its correlates suggests that in urban areas of Iran gender roles are defined beyond socio-economic and demographic attributes, at least on the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, the mobility of young people abroad for education and labour has been rapidly increasing in Nepal, which has impacted both rural communities and household life. Based on ethnographic field data from Eastern Nepal, this paper explores how multilocality affects the socio-spatial dimensions of householding, i.e. how siblings negotiate their roles as movers and stayers in relation to household obligations, individual aspirations and shifting socio-economic opportunities. This paper draws on and contributes to scholarly debates on how migration impacts social transformation in places, with a particular focus on the dynamics of multilocal householding. We argue that a common agreement between generations and siblings that ‘the house cannot stay empty’ reinforces the importance of the household as a meaningful place exercised through the maintenance of traditional intra- and intergenerational contracts and the practice of rotating presence and absence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the authors discuss the impacts of internal migration and urbanisation in developing countries.

This paper examines the relative education and employment outcomes among young migrants and non-migrants in Greater Jakarta in 2009/2011. Using data from the 2010 Greater Jakarta Transition to Adulthood Survey that includes 3006 respondents aged 20 to 34 years old, the paper highlights the importance of the age at migration in influencing the patterns of schooling and employment among young people. Patterns of schooling and employment are investigated for four groups of young people: those who migrated to Greater Jakarta between ages 0 and 10, between ages 10 and 17, after age 17, and non-migrants. We found that young people who migrated to Greater Jakarta at 10–17 years of age are over-represented in the lower spectrum of occupational rankings, even though they are more likely to be employed than non-migrants and those who came to Jakarta at other ages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper integrates the methodology of the National Transfer Accounts and Budget Forecasting Model to compute and forecast the impact of population ageing on India's public finance from 2005 through 2050, based on the fiscal structure in 2004–2005. The empirical results are new and have useful policy implications. The forecasted increase in the share of total public expenditure on elderly individuals is largely accounted for by expenditure on civilian pensions and other cash transfers, government services, and poverty and other social protection. Elderly individuals are found to be not very expensive in terms of public health expenditure. Tax revenues increase and result in a decline of debt-to-GDP ratio because population ageing does not lower tax buoyancy in the long run. Overall, the increasing total budget surplus and fiscal support ratio implies that the long-term impact of population ageing may be fiscally sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on a case study of married female migrants from two rural villages of Hung Yen province to Hanoi City, Vietnam, this paper investigates the implications of female migration on gender roles and relations within families. The paper shows that wives' migration changes gender roles and relations within the family. Being on the move, migrant wives become the main breadwinners while their husbands left behind take on the role of carers. The migrant wives acquire a stronger voice in family matters and a strong sense of pride, worthiness and earned respect, whereas their husbands experience a loss of power. However, these changing gender roles and relations rarely result in family fragmentations; instead, families are still being sustained as migrant wives ‘do family’. By ‘doing family’, they can exploit their increasing power in an acceptable manner, so that patriarchal family ideals are not openly confronted. This paper provides a more nuanced understanding of the implications of female migration on families, i.e. the simultaneity of the reproduction of and the change in gender roles and relations within families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper measures the degree of inequality in child mortality rates across districts in India using data from the 1981, 1991 and 2001 Indian population censuses. Results show that child mortality is more concentrated in less developed districts in all three census years. Furthermore, between 1981 and 2001, the inequality in child mortality seems to have increased to the advantage of the more developed districts. In the decomposition analysis, it is found that while a more equitable distribution of medical facilities and safe drinking water across districts has contributed to reducing inequality in child mortality between 1981 and 1991, different levels of structural change among districts have been responsible for a very large part of the inequality in child mortality to the advantage of the more developed districts in all three census years. The paper concludes with some brief comments on the policy implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the linkage between poverty and inequality in malnutrition through decomposition analysis using data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005-2006. Association between inequality in malnutrition and income inequality and poverty is observed at the state level. Inequality is analysed using the concentration index, which is further decomposed to identify the factors associated with inequality in malnutrition. Poverty, in terms of the wealth index, has considerable impact on average rates of malnutrition, indicating a disproportional burden of malnutrition on the poor. At the macro-economic level, overall socio-economic inequality correlates moderately with the inequality in malnutrition. On decomposition, poverty alone explains more than half of the inequality in malnutrition, which justifies the poverty-nutrition inequality linkage. The paper highlights the influence of poverty in worsening malnutrition, leading to unequal nutritional outcomes among children in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ageing baby boomers in Singapore, which account for one-third of the total population in 2006, will have a profound impact on the economy, society and environment. The greatest demand is for health care services. Even though Singapore has generally been regarded as a country where primary health services are easily available to all residents, this paper identifies significant spatial variations across the island-state. In particular, accessibility in some areas with high concentration of boomers is relatively lower compared to other residential areas. This paper concludes that understanding the spatial variation in primary health service accessibility is critical to the success of future policies, which may lead to a review of the provision of such services across the island. The methodology developed in this paper is also applicable to the study of service inequalities in other Asian countries with large rural settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the experiences of people displaced internally by climate-related factors in mainland Bangladesh, one of the world's most climate-vulnerable countries. The data derives from a representative survey of 1,200 households drawn equally from displacement-susceptible areas and areas without climate-related displacement. Comparisons are drawn on the basis of four variables: the displaced versus the non-displaced; before displacement versus after displacement; people displaced suddenly versus those displaced gradually; and the frequency of past displacement. The displaced experience multiple disadvantages, including reduced land ownership and reduced access to electricity, sanitary toilets and healthcare services. The disadvantage is greater following sudden displacement and among those who have been displaced multiple times. The impact on the time and cost of accessing healthcare are greater after displacement. The disadvantage of the displaced, thus, is a function of interactions between exposure to natural disaster, impoverishment and lack of access to health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical analysis of return migrants' entrepreneurial decisions after returning home using individual survey data in Jiangxi Province. We apply an extended hurdle model to investigate how social-economic factors, in particular, social network, local government support and previous migration experience may play different roles in affecting return migrants' entrepreneurial decisions in different stages. A standard probit model is incorporated in the first stage to separate potential return migrant entrepreneurs from those who are not willing to consider establishing enterprises. In the second stage, a lognormal hurdle model is used to identify factors affecting return migrants' entrepreneurial establishment and investment amount decisions. Results from the extended hurdle model suggest that government policy support is the most important factor for successfully attracting return migrant entrepreneurs back in Jiangxi Province. In addition, previous migration experience and household attributes are crucial and play different roles in affecting both return migrants' willingness to consider entrepreneurship decisions and entrepreneurial investment decisions. On the other hand, individual characteristics are shown to affect only return migrants' entrepreneurial investment decisions but not willingness to consider entrepreneurship decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares fertility-related behaviour in the adjacent regions of West Bengal (a state in eastern India) and Bangladesh. The starting premise of the paper is that common history and language has led to diffusion of fertility practices from West Bengal to Bangladesh. This is hypothesised to create a homogenous pattern of fertility behaviour in the bordering districts of both political regions. The study uses Demographic Health Survey (DHS) and District level Household Survey data for 1992, 2002, and 2012. Despite some reservations – as DHS is directed to produce state-level estimates, while DLHS is geared to yield district-level estimates – the similarity in sampling strategies and coverage of all districts (in West Bengal) and divisions (in Bangladesh) implies that the two data sets may be pooled, particularly in the absence of any alternatives. We tested whether fertility behaviour in (i) bordering districts differs from non-border districts in both countries, and (ii) bordering districts of both countries are similar using multi-level linear and logistic models. Outcome variables are contraceptive prevalence rate, and number of ever born children. The results reveal similarities in fertility behaviour between border divisions of Bangladesh and West Bengal, indicating possible cross-border diffusion of fertility practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of missing women in the population of Pakistan in 2015 amounted to approximately 4.4 million. The age distribution of this male surplus (i.e. in the 40+ population) suggests that the collective exposure of selected birth cohorts to deleterious events (i.e. conflicts and natural disasters) may have precipitated a surge in female vis-a-vis male mortality. To analyse this, this paper first collects gender and age disaggregated (wherever possible) mortality statistics arising from conflicts and natural disasters that have occurred throughout the history of Pakistan (since independence) and evaluates their impact on the sex ratios (male/female) of the population by age. Subsequently, it analyses the historical sex ratio pathway by age to assess how these events may have caused deviations from the pathway. The analysis reveals that conflicts and natural disasters (independently or in the aggregate) have had no impact on the missing women phenomenon in Pakistan and hence cannot explain the surplus of men in the country. Nevertheless, it points to the severity and persistence of the missing women phenomenon in Pakistan, especially among the elderly (60+) population. It also indicates the likely endurance of the phenomenon in future cohorts of elderly population in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premarital family context is influential for the transition to first marriage. This study examines the extent to which coresidence with parents and family income is associated with the transition to first marriage in South Korea. Drawing on extended coresidence perspective, the study examines the extent to which premarital coresidence with parents is associated with the transition to first marriage. Furthermore, the study examines the influence of family income and its moderating influence on the relationship between coresidence and transition to marriage. Utilising the representative data from the Youth Panel, this paper examines the effects of family income and coresidence with parents on marital formation over time using discrete-time hazard models. Results show that coresidence with parents is negatively associated with the transition to marriage. Yet, at the same time, family income has shown to be positively associated with transition to marriage. While findings of interactive effect suggest that the odds of marriage for those coresiding decreases, as family income increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic accounts of Muslim survivors of ethnic strife in three cities of western India, and in particular on the voices of women, this paper draws attention to the impacts of such violence on the domains of kinship and family. It explores the implications of violence for the dislocation and dismembering of families, and the fracturing of educational and occupational aspirations of family members. While the kin group forms the first circle of support for survivors, there are also clashes of interest that must be handled. Muslim women in India, in particular, face some specific problems. Their skill levels are generally low and their capacity for mobility, because of community constraints, is hindered. The increasing ghettoization of Muslims in urban India, due to the threat of violence, further confines women survivors and their families to certain spaces and specific neighbourhoods. Women need to access state support and find new avenues of livelihood to support their families. At this very juncture, they may feel the weight of community norms more sharply. As the paper shows, the demands of family and community may be at odds and women have to tread a wary path in the battle to survive and retrieve a life for themselves and their children in the aftermath of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural to urban migration has been a central outcome of, and a key contributor to the rapid economic growth in Vietnam since 1986. Much of the policy and research attention given to migration flows have focused on permanent migration. This paper conceptualizes temporary migration from rural to urban areas and discusses the role of temporary migration in the rural household economy from the point of view of returned migrants. The paper uses qualitative data from the 2003 Young and Family Study conducted in four rural communes, substantially supplemented by a review of secondary data, to assess the nature and determinants of temporary migration. The data suggest that temporary migration is an important part of rural household economic strategy in this transitional period of the economy of Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]